GENERAL HISTORY. 



[123 



grateful of men, if, forgetting the 

 protection which his ancestors 

 and himself had received in this 

 country, he was not anxious that 

 the same resource should be left 

 open to others who might be si- 

 milarly circumstanced. 



The House then divided; Ayes, 

 55; Noes 18: Majority 37. 



The bill was then brought in, 

 and read a first time. 



On the 7th of May, Mr. Lamb- 

 ton rose to make his promised 

 motion for copies of the corres- 

 pondence which had taken place 

 between this government and that 

 of the Netherlands respecting 

 aliens When the noble lord op- 

 posite moved for the continuance 

 of the Alien act, he had stated 

 the principal grounds to be, the 

 necessity of co-operating with fo- 

 reign governments for protecting 

 them from the machinations of 

 disaffected persons, and the dan- 

 gers they might incur from them. 

 He was astonished when he re- 

 collected that the noble lord had 

 also said, that the Alien bill was 

 brought in purely for the protec- 

 tion of British interests ; which 

 was an assurance that he could 

 by no means reconcile with the 

 admission above alluded to. He 

 proposed, by the production of 

 certain papers, to come at the 

 true state of the intention of his 

 majesty's government in this re- 

 ject ; and for this purpose he 

 oioved for an humble address to 

 the Prince Regent, that he would 

 be graciously pleased tliat there 

 be laid before the House copies 

 or extracts of all correspondence 

 since the 20th of November 1815, 

 relative to aliens ; and also all 

 such as concerned passports 

 granted or refused to individuals 



either going to or coming from 

 the Netherlands. 



Lord Castlereagh denied that 

 he had drawn any arguments in 

 favour of the bill from the situa- 

 tion of the Netherlands. He had 

 only endeavoured to show, by 

 way of contrast, the advantage 

 to this country of having an alien 

 bill. He objected to the inform- 

 ation which the hon. gentleman 

 had called for, as it was his in- 

 tention to contend that govern- 

 ment had never used the powers 

 of this bill for any other purpose 

 than for excluding from this 

 country those suspected persons 

 who were likely to disturb the 

 general peace. 



Mr. Laiyibton said, that he 

 could not receive the noble lord's 

 explanation as satisfactory. He 

 would now ask him whether he 

 had not joined with the rest of 

 the allied powers, at the time of 

 the treaty of Paris, in demanding 

 that certain Frenchmen should 

 be given up who had taken refuge 

 in Switzerland, the Netherlands, 

 and on the banks of the Rhine ? 

 If so, this would show that he did 

 interifere with other powers in a 

 manner that must be conceived 

 to be highly unjustifiable. He 

 would, however, take the sense of 

 the House upon his motion. 



The House divided : Ayes, 30 : 

 Noes, 68 : Majority, 38. 



When the Alien bill was moved 

 on May 15, by lord Castlereagh, 

 for a second reading, the first 

 person who rose for its discussion 

 was Mr. Lambtnn. After ex- 

 pressing his surprise, that in a 

 period of profound peace this 

 measure should have been twice 

 resorted to, the hon. gentleman , 

 chiefly followed a strain of decla- 

 mation 



